Indoor Tips

Water and energy are intimately connected! Calculate your home water use and see how much energy goes into it with WeCalc by the Pacific Institute.

Visit h2ouse.org to click through an interactive house and learn about water use in each area of your home.

How to Conserve Water Indoors

Fix leaky faucets and plumbing fixtures. This will save you 20 gallons a day for every leak fixed. Obtain an estimate on how much your leaky faucet is costing you.

Turn off the water when you brush your teeth. This will save you three gallons per day.

Install water saving shower-heads and shorten your showers. Even if you shorten your showers by only one to two minutes, you can still save up to 1,500 gallons per month.

Retrofit all household faucets by installing aerators with flow restrictors to slow the flow of water.

Check for toilet tank leaks by adding food coloring to the tank. If the toilet is leaking, color will appear in the toilet bowl within 30 minutes.

Don’t let water run while shaving or washing your face. Brush your teeth first while waiting for water to get hot, then wash or shave after filling the basin.

Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Dispose of tissues, insects, and other similar waste in the trash rather than the toilet.

Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher. This saves up to 800 gallons per month. For additional information on purchasing energy saving appliances visit the Energy Star website. For information on $100 High Efficiency Clothes Washer Rebates visit Southern California Edison.

Place a bucket in the shower to hold water when shower water is warming up and then reuse the water in your garden.

When washing dishes by hand, fill one sink or basin with soapy water. Quickly rinse under a slow-moving stream from the faucet.

Do not use running water to thaw meat or other frozen foods. Defrost food overnight in the refrigerator or use the defrost setting on your microwave.

Kitchen sink disposals require lots of water to operate properly. Start a compost pile as an alternate method of disposing of food waste, instead of using a garbage disposal. Garbage disposals also can add 50% to the volume of solids in the sewer system or they can lead to problems with a septic tank.

Talk to your friends and family about saving water, swap water saving tips.